Carpenter City streets

Carpenter City streets

Down in the alley, Mena was gnawing on a rat and sucking on the blood, feeling both shame and satisfaction. She looked up when she heard a familiar voice come from behind her.

"Kinda has a bad after taste, huh?"

She turned her head and found Dante leaning against the alley wall. She swallowed what she had in her mouth, placed the rat on the ground and stood up.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, unable to keep resentment out of her tone.

"I was in the neighborhood, just searching for any trouble." Dante said with a smirk.

"Do you guys always look for trouble?"

"We look for it but we don't 'cause it."

"Huh." Mena raised an eyebrow, almost disbelievingly.

"I am curious as to why you're still here."

"I could ask myself the same question."

"Thinking about coming back?"

"I know that I don't want to be a Ranger but I get this feeling that I belong here. I can't explain it, I know I can leave right now if I wanted to, but I feel almost tied here." Mena tried to put her thoughts into words, feeling like a complete idiot.

"Could be anything. Could be your mind telling you that, or your heart, or it could just be your stomach trying to pass that rodent."

Mena chuckled at the remark.

Don't know much about your life.
Don't know much about your world, but
Don't want to be alone tonight,
On this planet they call earth.

"Look, I may not know anything about you or your life, but I can probably take a guess." Dante said, taking a step closer.

"Alright, shoot."

"Well judging by your condition and current situation, I am going to say that you really have no family or friends. Orphan?"

"Yeah."

"And you've been traveling, trying to find your place in the world while trying to fill that empty void in your life, no longer just going through the motions?"

"Exactly. So what would you know about that?"

You don't know about my past, and
I don't have a future figured out.
And maybe this is going too fast.
And maybe it's not meant to last,

"'Cause Shaun and I were just like you. We too were just going through the motions at one point of life, just trying to find a higher purpose to our existence. While the directions we took were different, they both lead us to the same point: emptiness. And then Jared came into the picture. He took us in, one by one, and he showed us our potential, and that we had found our place in the world."

But what do you say to taking chances,
What do you say to jumping off the edge?
Never knowing if there's solid ground below
Or hand to hold, or hell to pay,

What do you say,
What do you say?

"The point I am trying to make is that we wouldn't have found it unless we took a chance at what were given and embraced it. It helped us and I think that it might help you. And in doing so it might help others."

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the Purple Vamp Morpher.

Mena reached out and took the phone and looked at it, her mind racing.

End of Song

Suddenly the morphers alarm ring tone went off. Dante quickly flipped his open.

"This is Dante. What's up?"

"Dante, its Jared. We have gotten report of Bastien with Orlock and a vampire army attacking downtown. Shaun is heading your way to get you."

"Right. Red Ranger out." Dante smiled at Mena. "Duty calls."

A couple of minutes later, Shaun pulled up in Jared's black Mazda.

Noticing Mena, Shaun grinned. "Hey, does this mean what I think it does?"

"Maybe," Mena replied as she headed towards the car.

She turned to Dante, "Front or back?"

"I'll take the back tonight."

They got into the car and Shaun stepped on the gas, speeding them downtown.